SACRIFICES (18 page)

              “I hope your right, because if you’re lying I’m sure you’ll be joining your friends sooner than you think. Because whoever has been blowing out your friends brains doesn’t give a shit about police being around. Ask Loomis? That is if he was here to tell you. But he’s not is he Mr. Stein. He’s dead and buried with a couple extra holes in his head.” Brad grits his teeth and lets out a long exhale and walks back to the couch.

              Todd walks over and leans down to Alex and explains.

“I am sorry about the way Brad is acting. But if you could tell us something,
I mean anything
, it would only help.” Todd sits back down still trying to keep Stein somewhat relaxed.

              “Gentlemen, I truly have no idea whatsoever. If I did I’d tell you; believe me I would. But I don’t know.” Alex closes his eyes and then leans back feeling petrified. Brad just put the fear of God into this powerful and successful man. He’s most likely not used to being talked to like this being in his professional position. Brad glances at the trembling man and realizes he did get his overwhelming point across.

              Brad stands up and says. “I apologize for the way I was acting. I am sorry. And now that we’ve had the opportunity to talk to you it definitely appears that the stories we heard are just a bunch of shit. I‘m sorry I came on so strong like that.” Brad smiles and reaches for his cell phone.

              Mr. Stein smiles nervously. “No apology needed. I know this whole thing has been tough on everyone.” Mr. Stein stands up as Todd does.

              Brad dials his phone and smiles while he waits for an answer. Todd makes the comment as Brad holds his phone to his ear. “It sure has been hot hasn‘t it?” Stein nods his head and smiles still appearing a little shaken.

              Brad starts to talk and he smiles. “Chief…yeah this is Brad,” Todd and Alex start to walk to the front door while Brad continues his call. “Todd and I are just getting ready to leave the Stein residence and it appears that this was a dead end. We were fed some bad info on the missing kids. Mr. Stein swears that he had no knowledge of anything about anything and Todd and I both believe him,” Todd winks at the smiling Mr. Stein. “So anyway were just getting ready to hit the road. And since this was just some bad information I think its safe now to get rid of the surveillance. There’s no need to tie up the locals or the state boys anymore. So would you make the calls to the state and me and Todd will relieve the Canton PD of their duty when we leave.” Brad smiles and winks at Mr. Stein who just looked like he swallowed a grapefruit.

              Todd nods his head and pats the feet shuffling Mr. Stein on the back and whispers. “Now you can go back to a normal life without cops surrounding your house twenty-four hours a day.”

              “All right boss so as if this moment the Stein surveillance is called off. Ok, we’ll see you in the morning, all right, see you then.” Brad closes the flip top phone and smiles. “Well Mr. Stein we apologize for any inconvenience this has put you or your wife through. Well,” Brad extends his hand and shakes the sweat soaked hand of Mr. Stein. “You take care of yourself.”

              Todd shakes his hand and says. “Take care Alex.” And the officers start to walk to the front door.

              Mr. Stein follows and makes the comment. “Do you think it’s a good idea to call off the security all at once?”

              “Well Alex. If I were you I wouldn’t worry. After all you personally had nothing to do with anything like you said, so if I were you I wouldn’t worry. Whoever has been killing your friends obviously has a beef with them not you. You’re innocent. And since you have no idea about anything that went on...my guess is you have nothing to worry about. You’ll be all right.” Brad opens the door and Stein quickly asks.

              “Would it be all right to at least have some of the watch at least for a little longer? I mean…I know my wife would feel safer.” Stein grins hoping to convince the officers of how much this would mean to his
wife
.

              Brad grits his teeth and says. “Well...I think it would be all right for just tonight but after tonight I think it’ll be all right don’t you Todd?”

              Todd smiles and says. “You don’t have anything to worry about. But if you think it will make your ‘wife’ feel better well have them stay tonight.” Todd shakes his hand once again and says. “If you need to call us about anything, I mean
anything
at all, just call us.” He hands the nervous acting, fake smiling Mr. Alex P. Stein a card that has his cell phone number on it as well as the precincts and says. “Have a good night.” Stein forces another smile as he nervously taps the card on his other hand staring at it.

              Brad and Todd walk out the door and pull it closed. Then Brad opens the door and steps back inside. “Excuse me sir but there’s
just one more thing
, by chance is your life insurance paid up to date?”

              Mr. Stein sighs and clears he throat and takes a sip of his Scotch. “Yes, yes it is. Why?”

              “Well sir it’s always better to be safe then sorry…” Brad smiles and starts to pull the door closed. “Have a good night.”

              Todd and Brad shake the hands of the officers outside and say their good byes and walk to their squad car. It seems to be cooling off a little. A nice change from the UN-Godly heat Illinois has been smothered with for the forty plus days.

BRAD AND TODD GET INTO SQUAD CAR IN FRONT OF THE HOUSE

             
Todd’s was going to drive to Bloomington. The two veteran officers don’t talk on the walk from the house to the car. They wait until they’re in the squad car before either man says a word. When they sit down Todd starts the car. They look at each other; still no talking. Then Todd starts by saying. “He’s definitely scared.” Todd places the unmarked car into drive and heads toward the stop sign.

              Brad looks straight ahead. “He should be. I think he’s full of shit. He’s definitely involved somehow, I don’t know to what extent, but he’s involved. There’s no doubt in my mind now, not at all.” Brad explains as the two officer’s head out of town toward route 29 northbound.

              “You know? If these guys did kill those kids and covered it up to save there own asses. It seems to me that the guy that’s killing them would be trying to get some information as to the whereabouts of the missing kids. It seems to me that if this guy is trying to pay them back that he’d have some ulterior motive like to find the bodies, or to bring these guys to justice. You know what I mean?” Todd gives his insight to Brad as they travel the dark eerie back roads out of Canton, Illinois on their way to Bloomington to talk to Mr. Howard.

              “I know exactly what you mean. But the truth is he does have an ulterior motive. He wants to give them justice. He’s the judge, jury and executioner. And who knows what he said to the guys before he killed them. Maybe he has tried to find out about the bodies. We’ll never know. Maybe he talked to them and asked. They didn’t answer so he killed them. It could be true that this guy doing the killing could have been involved and he’s trying to tie up all loose ends, who knows? I don‘t know anything anymore.” Brad shrugs his shoulders and looks out the window staring at the dark cornfields that get there only light from the moonlight shinning on the fields.

              Todd snickers and says. “I very seriously doubt that. This guy is set out to get revenge for the missing couple it appears at least. I would venture to say that this guy is hoping to find out where the bodies are and the husbands aren’t cooperating. That’s what I think. You know what else Brad? Why wait so long to do this, I‘m still very curious as to the answer to that question? That has me stumped. If this guy is involved, why not kill these guys’ years ago? If he’s trying to tie up loose ends why wait so long? If they’re out for revenge why wait sixteen years to get revenge? That‘s what has me stumped.” Todd drives down the pitch-black gravel road.

              “I’m curious about the ‘why’s’ myself. I wish I knew
why
they’ve waited so long. But if you’re right about this guy being bent on just revenge, which I agree, then the chief might be right. We might never find this guy. And...” Brad looks away almost as if too confused to talk.

              “And what Brad? What?” Todd inquires to his longtime friend who’s beginning to show signs of complete frustration and exhaustion.

              “And, if revenge is his motive. Once he completes his work by killing all of the husbands we’ll never know anymore than we do right now. That scares the shit out of me.” Brad leans back his seat and covers his face feeling exhausted and beaten.

              Todd tries to sift through the evidence and the theories in his head. He can’t help but feel that the thing they need to find out that to solve this case is simpler than they might think. It’s probably right there in black and white right in front of their face and they just haven’t seen it yet.

              “You know something Brad? Let’s try something. It might be a long shot but maybe it will help us find this guy.” Todd asks as the two men continue to drive.

              Brad leans up a little and asked. “What do you have in mind?”

              “I was just thinking. Why don’t we go back into the original investigation on the missing kids,” Brad interrupts? “That’s what you and Betty have been doing.”

              “No. We were checking on the stories and rumors about the team being involved. When I was there all I personally asked was what the witnesses and people interviewed thought about the football teams’ involvement. I asked them if they thought it was possible that the team had anything to do with the kids turning up missing,” Brad intently listens. He’s wondering if maybe Todd’s on to something. “I’m talking about going back and actually investigating the kids that disappeared. Check them out all the way. Maybe they had some enemies. Find out whom they hung out with. Check out what their families think happened. I’m talking about going back to where the case started. Were there any clues left behind? Or did they just vanish. Did anyone ever find anything that belonged to the kids: clothing, wallets or personal effects? Where did the police search? Was Speck killed at the sight of the bond fire a clue to check that area? Did any of their friends think they ran off together? Treat this as if it just happened. Start from scratch. Maybe the investigators from the first time around weren’t as good as us?” Todd smiles widely and lights up a Camel non-filter and then winks at Brad.

              Brad smiles and says. “We are going to catch a lot of flack about this. The chief is going to find this tough to swallow that we are stopping our investigation on finding this guy who has raped these women and killed these husbands to dig up an old case about the missing kids. You do know this don’t you?” Brad asks as he digs out a bag of chips from Todd’s sack.

              “No not at all. We’ll keep Dorothy and Betty doing the day-to-day stuff on the case. You and I will be doing the other. We’ll convince him it all comes full circle.” Todd changes lanes as he finally reaches the paved highway.

              Brad chomps down on a potato chip and smiles. “I’ve never questioned your judgment before. I’m not going to start now. I think you just might be on to something old boy. Maybe finding out more about the kids will turn out to be the key. It‘s definitely worth a shot. It‘s not like we have anything else.” Brad continues to eat his chips.

              “Hey, I forgot to tell you. You did pretty well at playing the bad cop back there,” Todd smiles and takes a sip of his soda pop. “Not as good as I do it, but not to bad at all.” Todd looks out the window.

              Brad tilts his head and smirks. “I do it much better than you do it.”

              Todd shakes his head and slowly turns the cap back onto his soda. “You’re not bad. But if it were I, I would have had that son of a bitch pissing his pants. He’d still be shaking even though were gone. That guy would have nightmares about me the rest of his life. It’s not your fault. I’m just a very scary guy when I want to be.”

              “
Bullshit
, I bet if you went back and checked ole Mr. Stein right now I bet he’s still shaking and probably sitting on the stool cause I scared the shit out of him. And you’re right about being a scary guy. Look in the mirror. That’s a face only a mother could love you silly son of a bitch.” Brad starts to laugh out loud. Todd just smiles and continues to drive.

              The case might have just taken on a new phase. The investigation has moved from looking into the link between the husbands and the missing kids. That link was correct. That link is indisputable. The team was definitely there at, during and before the kids turned up missing. But with Mr. Stein obviously hiding something and all of the other possible witnesses dead besides Mr. Howard in Bloomington that theory might end there. With all things considered finding out more about the missing kids might turn out to be the only hope to finding out who’s responsible for everything going on. Now, hopefully Betty and Dorothy are able to find out something from the people on their list of names.

              The two guys continue to drive towards Bloomington. They’ll have to stay somewhere along the way. It’s approaching 10 pm. By the time they arrive in Bloomington it will be going on midnight. So they’ll just plan on the Howard meeting in the morning.